ALTEC develops and provides technologically advanced systems and software applications to cover the entire spectrum of computerised and organisational demands in both the public and the private sector. During the last year ALTEC completed successfully a number of system integration projects for the private and public sector, while in the international front it assumed the largest IT project in Southeastern Europe (€55m). The project involves the design and implementation of the integrated information system of the state oil company of Romania, PETROM S.A, and it was assigned to ALTEC through an international bidding competition, in which many large European IT companies participated. Moreover, ALTEC signed agreements of strategic collaboration with large international companies such as Lockheed Martin, while developed new pioneering products for vertical markets.

The Unisoft Software Business Unit (henceforth: Unisoft BU) stems from Unisoft S.A. that has been a leading software producer with split headquarters in Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece. Founded in 1983, it has quickly developed into one of the more dynamic high technology enterprises. Till its completion of operations in September 2001, Unisoft S.A. was the mother company of a group with outstanding growth rate and has contributed significantly to the introduction of business software in companies in several European countries. Unisoft BU core business activity concerns the development of business information systems and services, addressed to both the private and public sectors of the Greek economy. Unisoft BU has succeeded in customizing its major application programs to fit the information needs of specific market segments. Unisoft BU is one of the most experienced business information systems providers and supporters with more than 40.000 customers from many business sectors all over Greece.

ALTEC will be led by Francesco Molinari.

Webpage: http://www.altec.gr

Adamantios Koumpis heads the Research Programmes Division of ALTEC S.A., which he founded at 1996 (then as independent division of Unisoft S.A.). His previous job position was at the Institute of Computer Science, FORTH, at Heraklio, Crete, where he worked at the Rehabilitation Tele-Informatics and Human-Computer Interaction Group in several Commission's RTD projects (RACE, ACTS and TAP). He is author of research papers, technical reports and Project deliverables in the domains of Data/Information Management and Human-Computer Interaction. His research interests include quantitative decision making techniques and Info Society economics. He successfully lead the ESPRIT Project 26063 BUDDY, the ESPRIT Project 29524 ATLAS, the e-Content Project Locomotive and the IST Project 20171 ExPlanTech. He is also Project Manager of many industrial and research projects in Greece in the areas of E-Commerce, public sector and business enterprise re-organisation and information logistics, concerning linking of data/information repositories with knowledge management and business engineering models.

Apostolos Vontas holds a University Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Patras, and a Masters Degree in Management Information Systems at the University of Macedonia. His past experience was related to research in the University of Patras, in renewable sources of energy (1996-1998) and his current job position is head of industrial and environmental informatics in the Research Programmes Division of the Software Business Unit.

Dimitrios Tektonidis heads the R&D Research Programmes Development Unit of ALTEC S.A. He got his BSc degree from the Technological Educational Institution (TEI) of Thessaloniki. He is author of research papers, technical reports and Project deliverables in the domains of Enterprise Application Integration, Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management. He lead the development teams in several projects amongst which the IST Project Dilemma, the e-Content Project Locomotive and the IST Project ExPlanTech. His main research fields are IS interoperability and enterprise application integration, Knowledge Management and Semantic WEB. Since October 2002 he is member of the ALTEC Task Force for the next generation of the company’s ERP systems.

The core business activities of TuTech Innovation are:

The department Interactive Communication (IK) is specialised in the conception and realisation of Internet based interactive applications and new media research focusing on electronic participation, online communities and e-learning. Acting in the field of e-government, e-administration and e-democracy for many years, TuTech/IK has gained considerable experience in establishing participative networks connecting major organisations and individual actors from science, politics, civil society and public administrations.

On behalf of Hamburg’s public administration or Hamburg’s parliament respectively, TuTech/IK conducted several political online consultations, e.g.:

These online consultations have been conducted with the help of the DEMOS platform and methodology, which both were developed in the course of the respective FP5 IST project. TuTech Innovation has developed the DEMOS approach into a product, offering professionally moderated discourses and consultations to PAs in Germany and abroad. The latest discourse was launched on behalf the City of Munich.

Together with the Technical University of Hamburg TuTech is about to develop and test an Internet based application to enable citizen participation in urban development. The Pets project would fit perfectly in TuTech’s E-Democracy portfolio in order to offer innovative dialogue and planning tools to Hamburg’s administration.

TuTech will be led by Rolf Luehrs.

Webpage: http://www.tutech.de

Rolf Luehrs is heading the department Interactive Communication and works for almost a decade in the fields of social science, technology assessment and online research. He holds a diploma in sociology and was involved in many different national and European research and development projects. From 1999-2003, Mr. Luehrs was the scientific and technical manager of the European project DEMOS (Delphi Mediation Online System) which has been coordinated at the TuTech Innovation GmbH. Rolf Luehrs is author of numerous articles in scientific journals, books and conference proceedings and has excellent computer skills. Mr. Luehrs has gained high expertise in empirical research methods both, qualitative and quantitative and is specialised on theory of democracy and public participation. He speaks and writes English fluently and has a basic working knowledge of French.

Renate Mitterhuber is heading the e-government unit at Hamburg’s departmental authority for financial affaires (Ministry of Finance). She is personally responsible for the city’s e-government strategy and the annual e-government action plans. Ms. Mitterhuber is a well known proponent of e-participation in public administrations in Germany and has already been involved in the FP5 IST project DEMOS. Ms. Mitterhuber has a diploma in politics and speaks and writes English fluently. Renate Mitterhuber will represent Hamburg’s administration in the project consortium (see also their Letter of Intent).

The Massa Municipality covers an area with a high touristic value and a wide concentration of some 800 industrial and craft activities located within the so-called Apuan Industrial Zone, with a direct employment of more than 10,000. Population is approximately 69,000 inhabitants and is distributed in 5 boroughs. According to the existing laws, the Municipality provides fundamental services to the population (individuals, families and enterprises) that falls under its jurisdiction. In Italy, local Governments have the objective to design and implement activities that may result in the overall balanced equilibrium of the economic, social and cultural sectors. Keeping this objective in mind, nowadays, a plethora of services (even e-Government services) are available to citizens, enterprises, public offices and organizations as well as to potential investors and entrepreneurs.

Specific objectives of the Mayor currently in charge include:

The Municipality has a modern and efficient organization, up to date equipment and its offices are fully computerized. By the deployment of a knowledge management platform, the Municipality intends to cope with the increasing problem of making diverse collections of existing resources work together, better communicating between services and applications and extending their basic capabilities with several additional interoperability functions. This is thought to be useful under several perspectives such as:

Michela Biggi: Born in 1970 and graduated in Law ("La Sapienza" University, Pisa, Italy - 1995). Since 1999 lawyer (Appeal Court of Genoa, Italy). Qualified in "European community planning skill" (A.I.C.C.R.E., Municipality of Massa –Italy, 2000) and in Drawing up European projects" (IDP Srl European Consultants, in collaboration with Belgian Chamber of Commerce – Brussels, 2001). Since 2001 she is Expert in EU funding and policy at the Municipality of Massa.

Alessandro Della Pina: Born in 1971 and graduated in Political Science-International Policy (Pisa University). Qualified in "Marketing techniques for customer care" (Omnitel-Vodafone at Pisa) and in "Local economic and financial development" (post graduate course at "S.Anna" in association with Massa-Carrara province). Since 2002 he is consulting expert in European funding and policy at the Municipality of Massa.

Municipality of Massa will be led by Francesca Panesi.

Webpage: http://www.comune.massa.ms.it/

Cybermoor is a visionary social enterprise, recently praised for being 2 years ahead of the community ICT sector in Liverpool because of the radical thinking which it carries out and follows up with action. A practical team combining financial & project management skills, customer service and close links with the communities it works with.

Cybermoor Ltd has the highest penetration of broadband in any rural area in England – thanks to special packages for residents on low incomes. Their responsibilities include the provision of computer consumables, recycled PCs and hire of equipment. They generate further income by supplying consultancy advice to local authorities and Government agencies. They promote social inclusion through ICT, in Alston and in other communities.

They train residents to publish stories and events onto the Cybermoor website and many take part in the on-line discussions. The website is used to deliver innovative services including text message alerts when roads are blocked by snow and a lift sharing service. The Cybermoor site is one of the most actively used community sites in the UK. The wireless broadband network which now covers most of Alston Moor is used for www.cybermoor.tv, a local television channel which can be viewed by broadband subscribers. Residents can film local events, edit these films and share them on-line. They also promote local artists and musicians through Cybermoor radio.

Cybermoor Service Ltd will be led by Daniel Heery.

Webpage: http://www.cybermoor.org/

Daniel Heery, CMSL: Daniel has a Degree, Diploma and Masters in Town Planning – with a research agenda focused on the impacts of technology projects on communities. This went beyond the hype to identify the social and economic drivers for technology projects. Since graduating from Newcastle University, Daniel has had a strong commitment to action research. He successfully obtained funding for the evaluation of the Cybermoor "Wired up Community" project, producing the first report in the UK which quantified the social and economic impacts of broadband on a rural community, with a forward by the Minister for e-Commerce, Stephen Timms. Passing on practical experiences to community activists, academics and policy makers is a key part of Daniel’s ethos. This is achieved through presentations to conferences run by Newcastle University’s Centre for Rural Economy, the Community Broadband Network and Local Government Association. Daniel also raises the profile of the issues in mainstream media – Cybermoor has featured in the Guardian and on Sky News.

Project Associates
Sue Gilbertson – Developed the Cybermoor website and is managing the roll out of the sites to other rural communities around Cumbria. Sue is actively involved in ground breaking service delivery projects, such as the Alston Community Gym. Peter Fowler - Founder of John Moores University’s International Centre for Digital Content. Peter has carried out evaluation of programmes for the North West Development Agency and Pentalk network in Cumbria.

It is the metropolitan centre of Northern Greece, the second city of the country (with more than one million people), and a basic national and international transport interchange in the cross-roads of the North - South and East - West axes. It is to be noted that the Region's comparative advantage in the course of infrastructure improvement, concerning research and technological support, comprises two Universities, one Technological Institution, a few research Institutes, a Technological Park, operating in the region together with a significant number of manufacturing enterprises located in the area.

Prefecture of Thessaloniki will be led by Damianos Kosmidis.

Webpage: http://www.nath.gr/

Damianos Kosmidis studied Mathematics and graduated from the University of Athens and holds a postgraduate degree in Computer Science at the University of Crete. Currently heading the IT Department of the Prefecture of Thessaloniki and was scientific responsible for several European and national projects amongst which the IST Project InfoCitizen and the IST Project EU-Publi.com. Experience in the analysis and project management gained through the participation in projects in the areas of multimedia and distributed applications. Previous professional experience includes also participation in large IT projects as project leader with clients coming from Academic and Research Institutions (Institute of Communication & Computer Systems of the National Technical University of Athens, Piraeus University Research Centre etc.), public organisations, private companies and individuals as well. Participation also as Consultant in numerous national projects on telematics.